CHAPTER XIII: OF CEREMONIES IN
THE ENTERVIEW
OF KINGS

HERE
is no subject so vaine, that deserveth not a place in this rapsodie. It
were a notable discourtesie unto our common rules, both towards an equa
ll, but more toward a great person, not to meete with you in your
house,
if he have once warned you that he will come: And Margaret Queene of
Navarre,
was wont to say to this purpose, 'That it was a kinde of incivilitie in
a gentleman, to depart from his house, as the fashion is, to meet with
him that is comming to him, how worthy soever he be: and that it more
agreeth
with civilitie and respect, to stay for him at home, and there to
entertain
him: except it were for feare the stranger should misse his way: and
that
it sufficeth to companie and wait upon him, when he is going away
again.'
As for me, I oftentimes forget these vaine offices; as one that
endevoureth
to abolish all maner of ceremonies in my house. Some will bee offended
at it, what can I doe withall? I had rather offend a stranger once,
than
my selfe everie day; for it were a continuall subjection. To what end
doe
men avoid the servitude of Courts, and entertaine the same in their
owne
houses? Moreover it is a common rule in all assemblies, that hee who is
the meaner man, commeth first to the place appointed, forsomuch as it
belongs
to the better man to be staid-for and waited upon by the other.
Neverthelesse
we saw that at the enterview, prepared at Merceilles betweene Pope
Clement
the seventh, and Francis the first, King of France, the King having
appointed
all necessarie preparation, went him-selfe out of the Towne, and gave
the
Pope two or three dayes leasure, to make his entrie into it, and to
refresh
himselfe, before he would come to meet him there. Likewise at the
meeting
of the said Pope with the Emperour at Bologna, the Emperour gave the
Pope
advantage and leasure to be first there, and afterward came himselfe.
It
is (say they) an ordinarie ceremonie at enter-parlies betweene such
Princes,
that the better man should ever come first to the place appointed yea
before
him in whose countrey the assembly is and they take it in this sence,
tha
t it is, because this complement should testifie, he is the better man,
whom the meaner goeth to seeke, and that hee sueth unto him. Not onely
each countrey, but every Citie, yea, and every vocation hath his owne
particular
decorum I have very carefully beene brought up in mine infancie, and
have
lived in verie good company, because I would not bee ignorant of the
good
maners of our countrey of France, and I am perswaded I might keepe a
schoole
of them. I love to follow them, but not so cowardly, as my life remaine
thereby in subjection. They have some painfull formes in them, which if
a man forget by discretion, and not by errour, hee shall no whit bee
disgraced.
I have often seene men proove unmanerly by too much maners, and
importunate
by over-much courtesie. The knowledge of entertainment is otherwise a
profitable
knowledge. It is, as grace and beautie are, the reconciler of the first
accoastings of society and familiarity: and by consequence, it openeth
the entrance to instruct us by the example of others, and to exploit
and
produce our example, if it have any instructing or communicable thing
in
it.